Why keep it secret?

Why keep it secret?

I always know there's an interesting news story somewhere in the world when I get texts in the early hours of the morning. Today was no different. I woke to a blast of SMS beeps telling me there may be another deportation flight for failed asylum seekers.

According the text, it would fly to Afghanistan. The flight would include refugees picked up in both France and Britain and would depart Lille later on Tuesday. The truth is that my source probably didn't know the full story. Very few people actually do. These deportation flights are conducted under a thick veil of secrecy.

This is a story we've been following on Al Jazeera for some time now. I travelled a few weeks ago to Calais to meet some of the migrants and asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan trying to make their way to the United Kingdom.

Let's be clear, the journey these men and boys are making is illegal. They are mostly trying to stowaway in vehicles and boats crossing the English channel. They hope to be granted asylum if and when they reach the other side. That doesn't always happen, but even when it does, they don't always get their desired outcome.

Just last week the British government tried to deport around 40 failed asylum seekers back to south and central Iraq. See Tim Friend's full report here.

International law stipulates that refugees should not be repatriated to places where they will be in danger. Article 33 of the UN convention of refugees (1951) says:

1. No Contracting State shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

The British government believes conditions in Iraq are now stable enough to return people. Despite this, the majority of those flown back to Iraq last week were sent straight back to Britain because Iraqi authorities weren't satisfied with their documents.

Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman, told Al Jazeera that eight refugees had been accepted and 36 were returned to the UK because they did not have "proof that they are Iraqis".

"We do need to be notified by the UK authorities. We do need to check them [refugees]; to check their identity. This is the normal procedure, which is being followed. Unfortunately, the UK authorities just put them on the plane and sent them to Baghdad," said al-Dabbagh.

The British government says these deportations are entirely in order and that more will soon follow. Perhaps we are seeing evidence of that even now with this latest charter flight.

But the authorities continue to remain almost completely silent on the subject. Even those being deported are given the smallest amount of information about when and where they are flying.

So the question is, if these repatriations are legal, why are the flights being kept secret?